


Relative Normality

by mariatyler



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Children, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Pete's World, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-28 23:18:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/998095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariatyler/pseuds/mariatyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete’s World fic, Tentoo/Rose. Plus kids. A small, domestic crisis is on the horizon for the Doctor and Rose when one of their friends does something that shakes the foundation of their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"I’ll be back late, so don’t wait up," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek before shrugging on his coat. "Bye kids!"

Suddenly the three eldest children flew out of various rooms and launched themselves at him for a hug. Fifteen-month-old Emma was napping, so she missed out on this race.

"Ha!" crowed William. "I got to him first!"

"You cheated," huffed Ava, shoving him out of the way to wrap an arm around her dad’s waist.

Joseph interjected, “He always cheats.”

"How is it even possible to cheat at this game, that’s what I want to know," sniffed William.

Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other in bewilderment. “You’ve turned hugging your father goodbye into a competition?” asked the Doctor dubiously.

"Not just you, Dad," Ava answered, rolling her eyes. "Double points for Mum."

Rose grinned happily and stuck her tongue out when the Doctor snorted in consternation. “They get this from you,” he said accusingly, raising his arm to point at her.

"Get what from me?"

"Their competitiveness."

"Are you serious?" she retorted, starting to laugh. "Really, truly serious?"

"Yep," he nodded, popping the ‘p.’ The kids had now fled, eager to play more interesting games than watching their parents have a semi-argument. "Miss Bet-You-Come-First," he smirked.

Rose’s cheeks coloured and she hissed at him, “Oi. Keep your voice down, the kids are just over there.”

He gave her a cheeky smile and leant in to kiss her again, this time on the lips. He lingered a little but didn’t deepen the kiss at first, waiting to see whether they would be interrupted as usual; they rarely got to kiss during the day any more, at least not whilst the kids were around. But this time, there were no protests of ‘eugh, Dad!’ from Ava, or a furious tugging them apart as jealous little Joseph was wont to do, or an attention-starved-for-three-seconds Emma crying for her Mum. So he took the rare opportunity to wrap his arms around his wife’s waist, surprising her by thoroughly executing a passionate tongue-inclusive snog. Her hands came up to grip his shoulders tight and he grinned internally because that meant she’d had to steady herself. Yep, he still had it. Good to know he could make her weak in the knees, even after all this time.

And then the doorbell rang, and Jake’s voice sounded through the door, “Oi, Doctor, you ready? We’ve got a mission to get going on, you know.”

The Doctor reluctantly released Rose and they both sighed wistfully. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he murmured, picking up his equipment from the hall table.

"Good luck. Stay safe," she replied, opening the front door for him. She watched him and Jake depart, still feeling tingly from the snog they’d just shared. Once they’d driven off, she closed the door, took out her phone, and texted him:

_Well done, now I have to look after the kids and not think about what you just did to me x_

It was a few minutes before he replied, minutes which Rose filled by clearing up after the children absent-mindedly, thinking about the last time she and the Doctor had managed to have proper, drawn-out passion-time. Their quickies of late had been just that: quick. What she’d give for a whole night alone with him like the old days, where they’d be wide awake, aroused, and naked in bed until the sun came up the following morning. No, scratch that; sometimes they hadn’t just been confined to a bed. She wondered when the last time they’d had sex in a room that wasn’t their bedroom was, then frowned when she came up with a figure that sounded like three and a half years. The bathroom at her Mum and Dad’s during a Vitex party, accompanied by a flimsy excuse: _whoops accidental wine spillage on your new shirt, I’ll help you sort that, Doctor._

Her heart picked up its pace when her phone beeped, and she read his text eagerly.

_At least you’re not sitting in a van with a ceaseless erection and a gay best friend. I hope he isn’t getting the wrong idea. I assure you that my thoughts are centred on you right now._

Her cheeks flushed red, and she quickly glanced at the kids, who were currently engaged in a game of Twister and luckily had no notion of their arguably middle-aged parents’ naughty text communication.

She sat down on the sofa, abandoning the mess of the living room, and texted back.

_I take it you’re thinking the exact same thoughts as I am, then x_

She waited for his reply. And waited. And waited. Then huffed in impatience and got up to get herself a glass of wine, leaving the phone on the sofa. When she returned to the living room, her eyes widened in horror as she saw Ava frown at the screen of her mobile, evidently reading a new message from Daddy that she couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t possibly understand.

A strangled cry wrenched from Rose’s throat as she dashed over to the sofa and seized the phone from Ava. Stupid, stupid. Why had she left it there? Stupid, irresponsible mother, she was.

"I’ll take that, thank you," she said to Ava, and quickly looked at the message to ascertain whether she’d need to send her ten-year-old daughter to therapy. She sighed in relief. There was no way she’d have deciphered the message’s meaning.

_If you’re thinking about a bathroom and various horizontal surfaces in the many alternative rooms of our house that we haven’t made use of recently, recently being in the last FOUR YEARS or so, then yes, that is exactly what I am thinking._

"What does Daddy mean?" asked Ava, ever the mini-me of her inquisitive mum.

"Um. Just that we need to do a spot of Spring-cleaning," Rose improvised, then encouraged Ava to join her brothers’ game again. Taking a sip of her wine, she composed her next text,

_Blimey, couldn’t we have sent the kids out on this mission of yours instead and had the house to ourselves for once? Or does that make me a terrible, terrible mother? x_

It was another few minutes before she had her reply this time.

_Hmmm, I’m not sure. Certainly the authorities would have something to say about sending our young children headfirst into possible danger. But they’d enjoy it because they are ours, and a love of trouble runs through our family rather strongly, so I can’t tell where it actually stands from an ethical point of view. In other news, Jake drives very, very fast, and the fear for my life is reducing my, let’s say, visible ardour a little bit. Most of my thoughts, however, are very much still on the prospect of you and the kitchen table._

Rose bit her lip and crossed her legs. “Oh god,” she muttered to herself.

_Why do you have to be on the way to Kent right now? I’d much rather you were right here, next to me on the sofa._

Less than thirty seconds later –

_But we’d still have to text each other if we wanted to be amorous, because of the unyielding presence of our delightful children. Such is life._

She quickly texted back,

_Can we have another honeymoon?_

But just after she hit send, the boys got into an argument about whose left foot was supposed to be on the green circle, and she had to intervene. The kids were demanding from thenceforth, so she didn’t get to check her phone for the rest of the evening.

Hours later, once all the children had been shepherded upstairs, bathed, read to, and put to bed, Rose sank down onto the sofa again and retrieved her mobile phone. She arched a curious eyebrow as she realised she had a text from the Doctor but also four missed calls. She read the message first, and vaguely remembered it was a reply to her request for a second honeymoon.

_We’d manage a day without the kids and then we’d be bored and miss them dreadfully, and you know it._

Oh. Well that was encouraging, she thought with a scoff. Bored? _Bored?_ Sure, she’d miss the kids a huge amount - she missed them even when she went to work for just a few hours for goodness’ sake - but that didn’t mean she’d be bored with just the Doctor for company. Did they really have nothing to talk about or do that didn’t surround their children anymore?

Would she and the Doctor really not be able to amuse themselves for more than a day on their own? Would he not find the time with just the two of them an exciting opportunity to catch up on ravishing each other? After all these years together, was he really only happy because they had the kids to act as a buffer between them and boredom? She swallowed hard, not liking the weird sense of rejection, and was just about to pointedly ignore the missed calls until she realised that they weren’t from him anyway.

One of their best friends, Steve, had tried to phone her four times. What on earth? He had had some trouble recently, what with splitting up with his wife, but she didn’t think he’d find it necessary to call her up at fifteen minute intervals on a Wednesday evening.

Sighing, she rang him back. And proceeded to listen to half hour of righteous anger at his ex-wife, feeble attempts at being mildly delighted with his newfound freedom, and morose self-pity. She cut him off when he circled back around to anger, and said impatiently, “Look, why don’t you come ‘round for a bit and have a drink, eh? You sound like you need to relax, and I’m not being rude but my ear’s growing hot with this phone against it so long, so why don’t you come over and we can chat face to face?” and I’ll hopefully be able to get a word in edgeways, she silently added. Honestly, what was it about phone conversations that made people think they could just drone on and on without letting the other person actually converse with them? At least when your co-chatter was sitting in front of you, you could pick up on the non-verbal signals that you were taking too long with your end of the talking, and shut up for five fucking minutes.

"Oh that would be lovely," he said gratefully, and Rose rolled her eyes. She was trying to be sympathetic and everything, but he’d probably been angling for an invite all evening, so she didn’t know why he couldn’t have just said that thirty minutes ago.

"Okay then. I’ll get out a nice bottle of wine and we can have a laugh and forget your woes, yeah?" she said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Rose, you are such a good friend," he replied, with feeling. "I’ll be there in five."

"Right. Good. Excellent. See you soon." She hung up and sighed. Oh well. At least she’d have some company and not have to watch reruns of Come Dine With Me on her own all night.


	2. Chapter 2

"Steve, you’ll get through this," Rose said, surreptitiously glancing at the time. He’d only been here a little while, and she was already regretting inviting him over.

"Shame Lisa’s basically stolen all my mates though. They’ve all taken her side."

"You’ve still got me and the Doctor."

"Yeah," he said, giving her half a smile. "Yeah I have got you, haven’t I?"

"Course. Here if you want to talk, and all that," Rose assured him. She still had that paperwork to do about her encounter with that Silurian last week, and she wondered if she could use that as an excuse to politely tell Steve that his time was up.

"It’s just that I’m still so angry, you know?”

"Mmm." She liked Steve, she did, but he was more the Doctor’s mate than hers, to tell the truth, and he did have the most monotonous voice she’d ever heard. She poured him another glass of wine. He was always more fun when he was drunk, and less inclined to drone on about his life, as paradoxical as that sounded. He was one of those people who told rubbish jokes when he was tipsy rather than getting emotional, which for Rose right now was preferable.

"She’s messed around with my head, too, you know…" he continued.

"Mmm." Rose thought about all the stuff she had to get done this week. She was working tomorrow, and then she had to organise a time for Ava’s parents’ evening, and she had a stack of ironing that she wasn’t letting the Doctor near after last time he’d tried to help with that. God, though, did she hate ironing. It ranked somewhere between cleaning the windows and cleaning out Joseph’s hamster cage. And thinking about ironing was even more boring than ironing itself, which just went to show how engaged she was in Steve’s rambling.

"Do you know what I mean?"

"Hmm? Sorry, Steve, what did you say just then?"

"I said that she’s not exactly a looker, anyway, so I dunno why she thinks she can do better than me," he huffed.

Rose flinched. She hated it when he spoke about his wife like that. “Yeah, well, some people just aren’t meant to be together forever,” she said, trying to soften her voice so that she didn’t snap at him. “Maybe she’s done you a favour, yeah? Now you can get out there and find the one you are meant to be with.”

"Hmm, maybe," he said quietly.

Rose smiled, and eyed him in confusion when he stayed silent, just looking at her. “Steve?”

"I was just thinking…you’re the same age as her, near enough. What do you reckon she’s thinking?"

"I don’t really know her that well," Rose said reasonably. "But I suppose, if she wasn’t happy and she knew you weren’t happy either, then maybe she thought it’d be best to go your separate ways; to make a new life, away from each other, where you can find that happiness."

"Before it’s too late," he finished gruffly.

"No, no, I didn’t mean that. I mean, we’re not that old, are we?”

"Well, no. But she’s older than me."

"Is she?"

"Yeah, by two years."

"Well, that’s not much."

"No, but you have to admit that I’ve aged better," he grinned. Rose raised an eyebrow and he laughed. "I’m only joking. I’m just trying to make myself feel better, that’s all." He sighed. "I know that she still looks like she’s in her early thirties. I hate that. She’ll find someone else in no time."

"It’s probably ‘cos you haven’t had kids – less stress, so she looks younger. Unlike me. I love them, but they are a lot of work, and these wrinkles are evidence of that." She pointed to her face.

"You still look pretty young for your age, though, too," Steve reasoned.

"Are you kidding?" Rose cackled. She leant closer to him and pointed at the corner of her eye. "See those? Crow’s feet. I am getting old, and I feel it.” She leant back again and sighed wistfully. “Used to be a time that I used peroxide just to cover my darker hair. Now I have to dye it to cover the grey!”

"Never!" he gasped in mock-horror.

"Well, all right, no, it’s just three grey hairs so far. But still. That’s three more than I had three years ago."

"Does the Doctor dye his hair? I’ve always thought that considering he’s a lot older than you, he must be grey already."

"He’s not that much older," Rose corrected. Of course, in reality, he was centuries older, but that wasn’t the point; his identity here, on this Earth, had him at just a decade her senior. "And no, he still has his naturally really great hair, thank goodness."

"I always see him checking it out in the mirror," Steve laughed.

Rose giggled. “Oh yes. Has to be at an exact ratio of styled and ruffled. God forbid he ever goes bald.”

"Would you dump him if he lost all his hair?" Steve teased.

"Of course!" she laughed. "I’m only with him for his hair."

There were a few hours of success at taking his mind off his recently broken up marriage by chatting about everything but - which lifted Rose’s spirits too, and prevented further thought processes about ironing. However, after a while the woes started spilling forth again, and Rose listened like a dutiful friend, with only one eye on the clock.

"I just feel so useless, now, you know?" Steve bemoaned softly. He fiddled with the zip of his jacket. "I’m so alone, Rose."

"No matter how bad it seems at the moment, you’re not useless, and you’re not alone, not really," she replied sympathetically.

"I need someone."

She squeezed his shoulder in comfort. “You’ll find someone, don’t worry. You can’t rush it. It’ll just happen. You’ll see. It’s only been three months since…if you just sort yourself out, get your mojo back, you’ll be fine.”

"You really think so?"

"Yes," she nodded.

He looked at her for a few moments, and then abruptly seized her into a hug. “Thank you, Rose. You’re so…” he whispered into her ear.

"Don’t worry about it," Rose assured him, returning his hug. She patted him on the back and then pulled away. "You’re a handsome guy, you’ll meet someone else soon enough."

"You really think I’m handsome?" he murmured, his lips curving into a smile.

"Course you are," she smiled encouragingly. "Any woman would be lucky to have you."

Steve sighed wistfully. “You are very lovely yourself,” he murmured.

Rose laughed.

"No, really. I mean it," he whispered. "I think you’re wonderful. I’ve always thought so."

She shifted uncomfortably. “Well, we’re friends, I should hope so,” she joked weakly.

"When’s the Doctor getting back?"

"He’s on a mission, so not ‘til the early hours, probably," she replied, glancing at the clock again. It was only eleven-thirty.

"Good."

He leant forwards to kiss her. It took Rose a moment before she realised his intentions, for it had come as such a surprise, and she’d been looking away. His lips had barely brushed hers when she lurched backwards, edging to the other end of the sofa. “Steve!”

"What?"

"You’re my husband’s friend, what are you even doing?" she exclaimed.

"Rose, you know what I’m doing," he said gently, leaning towards her again.

She shoved at his chest and stood up, glaring down at him. “What the hell? Stop it!”

"I’m in love with you, Rose," Steve admitted, standing up too. He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I’ve always been in love with you, all this time, and it’s killing me to keep it inside, to keep it to myself."

Rose swallowed hard, her eyes wide with horror. She snatched her hand away and moved backwards. “Please don’t do this. Don’t say this. You’re just drunk. And upset. And you’re not making sense.”

"I’m making perfect sense - "

"You bloody aren’t!" she shouted.

"I love you."

"Stop it! Just – just shut up!"

"I don’t know why you’re being like this - "

"Because I thought we were friends! And now you’re springing this on me and it isn’t fair.”

"I can’t help the way I feel!" he exclaimed in frustration.

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a steadying breath. “I think you should leave.”

"What?"

She opened her eyes and glared at him again. “Go. Now. Seriously, Steve, get out.”

"What? Why?"

"Because you just told me that you love me!"

"So?"

"Don’t you care about your supposed best mate? The Doctor would be devastated if he knew you what you’re doing right now! And our kids are upstairs asleep, in case you’re forgetting!"

"I can’t help it!" he shouted back. "I tried to suppress this but I can’t do it anymore. He’s my friend and I’m sorry to hurt him but I love you more, and - "

"Stop saying that!”

"Just – just hear me out, yeah? You know I’ll look after you and the kids - "

"What the fuck are you saying?"

"Just – if you maybe, you know, felt the same, then we could - "

"We could what? Are you seriously telling me to leave my husband for you?”

"Rose - " He tried to reach for her.

"No! Don’t even touch me! I don’t know where all this is coming from so I can only assume it’s the drink talking. You should leave now before you ruin our friendship completely. You’ll come to your senses in the morning."

She tried to move away from him but he grabbed her forearm and pulled her to him. “You can’t deny that there’s something between us!”

"What? You’re my _friend!_ That’s all you’ve ever been and it’s all you ever will be, all right?”

"Are you telling me that you don’t love me?"

"Of course I don’t love you! I love my husband!The father of my children!"

"Rose, I know you’re at least attracted to me - "

Rose rolled her eyes. “Steve, just because I told you that you’re a good-looking bloke, it doesn’t mean I want to get in your pants, all right? Now back off!”

"Rose, please - "

"Listen carefully, ‘cos I’m only gonna say this one more time. Let go of me, get out of my house, and sober up, and then maybe we can forget about this weird outburst and move past it. But if you don’t leave then I’ll have to call the Doctor and tell him about this, and I really don’t think you want me to do that because he’s the only bloody friend you’ve got left, yeah? Do you get what I’m saying?"

He gulped and released her arm, stepping back. “Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll – I’ll go. I know it was bad of me to just spring it on you like this. We can talk tomorr -“

"No, nope, no way, no more talking about this. You leave and you never mention this again, all right?" she demanded.

He nodded reluctantly and picked up his coat. “Okay. I’m sorry, Rose. I didn’t mean to – to…” he trailed off. “I’ll go. See you at work.”

He left quickly, and Rose sank onto the sofa in shock, hardly able to believe what had just happened.


	3. Chapter 3

It was nearly two o’clock in the morning when the Doctor got back. Rose knew because she couldn’t sleep, so she was staring fixatedly at the clock. As soon as he came through the door she leapt up off the sofa and propelled herself into his arms. Her earlier frustration at his indifference about a second honeymoon was completely forgotten in the aftermath of the weird experience her evening had turned into.

"Hey, what’s all this?" he murmured, squeezing her to him. He dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "Everything all right?"

She nodded against his chest, then lifted her head. “Yeah,” she smiled. “Everything’s fine. Just wanted to stay up to make sure you got back okay. Did it go well?”

"Oh yes," he assured her, wrapping his arms around her waist in a loose embrace. "We’ve got a couple of Treanzi lodging at Torchwood until we can get the resources together to send them on their way."

"Peaceful?"

"Yep. Didn’t want any trouble. Just got a bit lost, and their ship sank in a reservoir."

"Oh dear."

"We’ll help them out though. It’ll be all right."

"Just two of them, did you say?"

"Yeah." He smiled at her, and stroked a strand of her hair from her eyes. "They’re married. They were arguing when we found them."

"What about?" she asked curiously.

"About whose fault it was that their honeymoon went so wildly off track."

"Ah." They shared a grin. "Why does that ring a bell…"

"Oi. Our honeymoon was perfect," he chided playfully.

"I suppose it was, in the end," she conceded. "Even if we are banned from Barcelona for the rest of time."

He chuckled. “It was the best holiday ever.”

She suddenly remembered his last text. “Well, having another one would just be boring in comparison, I s’pose,” she mumbled.

He glanced at her in confusion but obviously didn’t understand what she meant, for he instead queried, “Kids okay tonight?”

Rose let the matter drop, and answered, “Yeah, fine. Although, Will didn’t want to go to sleep wearing pyjamas.”

"Didn’t he? Why’s that then?"

"He says that he’s renouncing clothes and embracing nudity for Lent."

"What?" the Doctor exclaimed in a snort of laughter.

"He’s your son," she shrugged, as though washing her hands of the issue.

"But we’re not even religious! And it’s not even time for Lent! And nobody gives up their clothes!”

"I know. Like I said. He’s your son. Illogical."

"I’ll have you know that I’m the most logical person on this entire planet."

"Yeah," she scoffed. "Says the man who eats banana pizza."

"Which is a perfectly logical thing to do."

"I am not having the pizza topping argument again, especially not at two in the morning," Rose said sternly.

He laughed and gave her another squeeze-y hug before releasing her. “Come on, you look knackered. Let’s sleep.”

"How flattering of you," she said, but then yawned widely and conceded to his point, following him upstairs.

::

Rose was sitting in her office the next day, sorting through some old field reports, when Steve showed up looking sheepish. Glancing at him lingering in the doorway with an apology written all over his face, Rose sighed and gestured for him to come in.

"You all right?" she asked, striving to be friendly.

"Yeah," he said, and released a breath of relief. "Listen, I just wanted to say -"

"It’s fine," she cut him off. "Don’t worry about it. I know you were drunk and lonely and it was a mistake. Let’s just not mention it ever again, yeah?"

His whole being seemed to deflate. “That’s not what I was going to say.”

"Oh?" She put her files down and looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

He bit his lip for a moment and then blurted it out, “I meant every word I said.”

Rose stood up hastily. “Steve, please don’t.”

"I’m sorry," he whispered. "I can’t help it. Now I’ve finally told you I just want to shout it from the rooftops. I love you, Rose, and I want to be with you."

"Steve. You’ve just split up from your wife, you’re not thinking straight. And I’m married. To your best friend,” she said emphatically.

"I know," he nodded. "And that’s really bloody awkward, I know it is. But I – I can’t help it. There’s something pulling me towards you and I - "

"No, that’s enough," she ordered. "This conversation is over. You’ve obviously not sobered up yet. Go home and get some rest; we can do without you for the day."

"But Rose - "

"That wasn’t a request," she insisted.

"But - "

"As I’m your boss, I suggest you do as I ask."

He sighed but nodded. “Fine. But this conversation isn’t over.” He turned and fled the office before she could get another word in.

Rose blinked at the spot he’d vacated in utter shock. “Shit,” she muttered. The photo on her desk, the one of her family, caught her eye and she stared at that for a few moments instead. “What the hell is going on?” she whispered to the photographed-Doctor.

"Hmm?" the very part-Time Lord she was mumbling to asked, as he stepped into her office.

She jumped and turned to face him. “Hi.”

"You all right? You look a bit jittery."

"I’m fine," she assured him. So many lies, and it’d only been a matter of hours since Steve’s revelation the night before.

"Want some excitement?" he grinned, waggling his eyebrows.

She couldn’t help but smile back. “Aliens?”

"Aliens."

"I’ll get my coat."

::

They didn’t get back home until late that night, after a tiring chase across London searching for three Acputs from Orelia. Jackie was looking after the kids for them, and when the couple stumbled in looking worse for wear, she insisted that they go and clean themselves up whilst she cooked them something.

Tiptoeing up the stairs so that they didn’t wake the children, Rose and the Doctor made their way to their bedroom. Once inside, they had a small but heated argument about who got to use the ensuite bathroom first, before finally conceding that they’d better just get on with it.

"I don’t see why you couldn’t just use the main bathroom," Rose huffed, as she stripped off her clothes whilst he did the same.

"You know what Will’s like; he’d wake up at the sound of running water and then we’d be stuffed." He dropped his trousers onto the floor and winced as they splattered mud and Acput goo across the tiles.

Rose raised her eyebrows. “You’re cleaning that up.”

"You were the one who shot one of the people we were trying to help," he snapped.

"For goodness’ sake!" she whispered furiously. "It was a stun gun! I wasn’t going to kill it!"

"But you did," he pointed out, completely naked now as he hopped into the shower.

She narrowed her eyes at him and got in next to him. “It was an accident. I didn’t know that stunning him would make him explode, did I?”

"No, but you could’ve held off and let me handle it." He switched on the faucet for the shower and sighed in relief as the hot spray rained down on them both.

"It had you by the throat," she hissed, grabbing the shampoo and turning away from him. "Excuse me for trying to help my husband not die.”

"But killing that one destroyed any chance of making peace with the other two, and now we’ve still got Acputs running about causing trouble.” He seized the soap and the shower puff and started washing Rose’s back for her.

"I’m sorry, all right? But if you had filled me in on their body properties, then maybe I would’ve attempted to get him off you a different way.”

"Oh, the blame game, that’s mature."

"Oi!" she spun around and poked him in the chest. "You’re the one making me feel guilty!"

His eyes softened as he took in her expression. “I know. I’m sorry.”

She let out a long breath. “As if I don’t already feel terrible,” she murmured.

"Hey." The Doctor lifted her chin so that he could meet her gaze. "Rose, I’m sorry. You’re right, it was an accident and you already feel bad enough, I shouldn’t make it worse."

Rose nodded, and he continued his quest, moving to wash her front. “I can do that myself, you know,” she pointed out, closing her eyes as he trailed the shower puff across her chest.

"Oh, I know. But let’s face it; I’m much more thorough."

Rose laughed quietly and leant against the wall. “I bet you were only picking a fight just now so that we could have angry shower sex. But you do remember what happened last time we tried that?”

He grunted and replied morosely, “I ended up with concussion. Yes, I remember.”

"It’s just too…slippery…" she mumbled, her voice breathy as he slid the soap directly onto her skin, down to her abdomen.

"I hope so," he murmured with a wicked grin, and when she opened her eyes she whacked his arm.

"You know what I mean. All the water and everything, it’s just not conducive to – ohh."

"How about you stand right there," he said, dropping to his knees. "And I - "

He was startled out of his sentence by a knock on their bathroom door. “What the hell?” Rose groaned.

"Rose? Doctor? Your food is ready and waiting on the table! Aren’t you done yet?"

The Doctor stood up, wincing slightly as his back clicked, and glared at Rose. “Your mother - ” he began.

"Has been very, very good to us this evening and taken care of our kids and made us dinner, so shut up.”

He had the decency to look a bit sheepish. “Very good points, those.”

"Thank you. Come on, let’s go eat, I’m starving."

"Well I was just - "

"Don’t. Even. Say it," she said warningly, her lips twitching.

He grinned. “You get out, I’m going to get cleaned up properly. You were distracting me from washing myself.”

She jumped out of the shower and towelled herself dry quickly, watching him watch her.

"Don’t eat all the food," he said, as she put on her dressing gown.

"Ooh, you’d better hurry up, because I’m afraid there’s no guarantee of that. See you downstairs." She flashed him a small smile and exited the bathroom. The Doctor turned off the water and hurriedly got ready to follow her.


End file.
